About NERAHN

Northeast Regional Anti-Hunger Network
Statement on Food Stamp Reauthorization

Hunger remains a serious problem in our country. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that in 1998, more than 30 million people, including 12 million children, did not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs. The Food Stamp Program is our nation’s best response to hunger. By providing a nutritional safety net, the program ensures that hungry households and those on the edge of hunger are able to receive help. It is vital that this defense against hunger remain an entitlement program, with a strong, independent identity from other benefit programs. We support the food stamp improvement provisions of the Nutrition Assistance for Working Families and Seniors Act and the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act of 2001. Through the reauthorization process, we seek a strengthened Food Stamp Program that improves benefits, access and outcome measures.

I. Improve Benefits
The Food Stamp Program should reflect and support USDA's standards for required daily allowances of nutrients.

Apply the same eligibility standards to non-citizens and citizens.
Replace the "thrifty food plan" with basic benefits that reflect current market basket values to enable recipients to meet USDA's nutritional standards.
Increase minimum benefits to $40 and index these benefits to inflation.
Simplify the asset test and link it to household size. At a minimum, institute a $5,000 limit, and exempt retirement accounts, education savings accounts and Earned Income Tax Credits.
Expand transitional benefits eligibility to a six-month period.
Increase the earned income disregard to promote work and self-sufficiency

II. Improve Access to Food Stamps
No other federal nutrition program requires as much documentation and reporting as the Food Stamp Program. We seek to improve access to food stamps for eligible individuals and families by streamlining administration of the program. This would improve both efficiency and participation.

Simplify the application process and streamline documentation requirements.
Develop a streamlined federal model for such processes and requirements, including a shorter "user friendly" application form.
Replace the current certification process with an annual re-determination of eligibility, unless a recipient becomes ineligible.
Eliminate categorical exclusions and special rules for non-citizens, students, single, childless adults between the ages of 18 to 50, those who are on strike, and those who have been convicted of a drug-related felony.
Conform to other nutrition programs by eliminating work requirements.
Provide fiscal incentives for states to develop tools to improve access, such as extended office hours, out-stationed eligibility workers, meaningful outreach efforts -especially to multilingual populations, and ongoing training for eligibility workers on federal regulations and customer service.
Create additional federal support for expanded and strengthened food stamp outreach.

III. Improve Outcome Measures
NERAHN recognizes the need for accountability and outcome measures. However, the current Quality Control (QC) system is no longer useful in an era when we seek to support working families and others. The system's extreme emphasis on detailed and targeted documentation and penalties drives the program, in a negative manner, and prevents access to food stamps. Dramatic improvements in this area would in turn significantly improve the entire program.

Maintain payment accuracy as a goal of QC, and extend criteria to other important considerations, such as success in delivering benefits to eligible households, customer service, retention rates, and state compliance with expedited service standards.
Continue to treat underpayments of benefits the same as overpayments, as well as treating errors made by eligibility workers the same as errors made by recipients.
An error should be counted only if it has existed for at least three months.
Adjust error rates according to the amount of benefits affected by the errors.
Maintain error rate adjustments to take into account the fact that some populations are more prone to errors than others because of fluctuating earnings or immigrant status.
Measure state performance differently, in order to discontinue comparisons that result in sanctions on half the states at any one time. Impose penalties only on states that exceed the sanction level for three consecutive years, at a 95% confidence level. Measure a state’s performance by comparing it to its own past performance. Require sanction amounts to be reinvested in state food stamp programs